Intestinal carriage of invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella among household members of children with Salmonella bloodstream infection, Kisangani, DR Congo

Invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) cause a serious health burden in sub-Saharan Africa but their reservoir (animal or environmental) is still unclear. Salmonella Typhimurium sequence type (ST) 313 and Salmonella Enteritidis ST11 are the main iNTS clades involved. The present study assessed household members of index patients for intestinal carriage of Salmonella.Index patients were patients admitted to the University Hospital of Kisangani (DR Congo) with Salmonella grown from blood cultures. After consent, household members were asked to provide three stool samples which were cultured for Salmonella. Salmonella Typhimurium and Enteritidis serotypes from index patients and household members were assessed for genetic relatedness by multilocus variable number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA), sequence type was determined by whole genome sequencing.